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Athletes already do this - they collect their own blood and store it and then transfuse themselves to supranormal levels prior to their sporting event. Lance Ar
by Gatsky 4y ago
Athletes already do this - they collect their own blood and store it and then transfuse themselves to supranormal levels prior to their sporting event. Lance Armstrong did this.
Lab grown blood would make this a bit more convenient, albeit at astronomical cost.
- fbdab103 4y agoI assumed the reason to use their own blood was to avoid detection. Presumably synthetic blood is weird enough that it becomes trivial to detect its presence that would make it a no-go for cheating.
- blackoil 4y agoTill you start modifying the body to produce these supercells.
- akiselev 4y ago“Synthetic” in this case doesn’t mean that it’s made using an alternative chemical process - it just means they’re not made in bone marrow. This process filters out stem cells from a blood donation and prevents them from becoming red blood cells long enough to multiply them significantly.
- Gatsky 4y agoYes. Some of the proteins in the cells would be different to the host cells, due to the exogenous stem cell source. This might be detectable with mass spectrometry (protein sequencing is otherwise difficult and laborious). There might also be different post translational modifications on the lab cells.
- clintonb 4y agoTrue. I imagine a scenario where the athlete is given supranormal blood without the extra step of collecting from themselves. This is just me speaking “out loud”. Today, this would be quite expensive. I can see a future where the technology scales and the richer teams/individuals try this out.
- ip26 4y agoThe salient point is it's prohibited in sports where it gives you a boost, and there are already ways to do it today.
- ChrisKnott 4y agoNowadays they just take EPO